Organic Plant Sale May 10th

at Rents Due Ranch

This plant sale is the day before Mother’s Day and will feature lots of tomato and pepper plants as well as annuals and some of the most amazingly beautiful hanging baskets.  Mike and Joanie at the Rents Due Ranch are expert farmers and are looking forward to co-hosting this final spring plant sale with us.

DIRECTIONS:  From I-5 north or south take Exit 212 (Stanwood/Camano Is.), head west towards Stanwood.  You will pass a QFC on your right, take the next left, 98th Ave NW, and follow to the end of the road.  Rents Due Ranch is the last farm on the right with several greenhouses visible from the road.    Rent’s Due Ranch’s address is 25708 95th Ave NW. 

Other sale information:

-Hours of the sale are 11am – 3pm Rain or Shine (most plants will be inside greenhouses)

-Terms of Sales:  Checks or Cash. Bring small bills, $1’s and $5’s are especially appreciated when making change, sorry no Credit Cards. 

-Please keep your children with you at all times, and no pets.

 

What a Spring?!?!?!

This weekend we “knocked down” or mowed about 25 acres of grass.  We usually take our first cutting of grass im mid April, but this year we are just tickled to have even the potential of  3 days with out rain.  And like every other farmer in valley, we are mowing like crazy to take advantage of this break in the weather. Just in case you are wondering how long it takes to mow 25 acres, it takes 8-9 hours and my son and I finished mowing at 11pm on Saturday.  I have never had to use my headlights to get work done before, but this Spring is hardly normal. The 8-9 hours to mow is the easy part, all the guess work trying to decide when to mow is the hard job.  On Monday we will start round baling the grass and putting it into Silage bags.  Some people call them giant marshmallows, we just call them bales.  We feed the silage to our beef cows when our pasture needs a rest. 

As far as spring vegetable plantings are concerned, we are so far behind.  I cannot ever remember an April when I didn’t get anything planted. We have had precious little ground drying weather this spring to get the fields ready.  I could have put in some lettuce transplants, onions and potatoes, but I really want to be able to knock back the weeds one more time before I plant.  And whenever I  jump into planting hastily, I usually have quite a weeding project on my hands.  However, I might have to just jump in and start planting, anyway, after all it is May!!!! 

This spring has been really taxing to this farmer.  As a farming friend told me on Saturday, “Nothing is normal when it comes to farming”.  Amen!!! And that especially applies to the weather this year.  

 

Tristan, for the Klesick Family Farm